"Philly Justice"

Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Good Hang. This is kind of an episode for our listeners, for fans of Parks and Rec, for fans of Good Hang. We have been... Kind of teasing this thing called Philly Justice, which is a fake. idea of a TV show that was created on the set of Parks and Rec that we made a one and a half minute trailer for. And we've been talking about the existence of it for a while and we've been listening to you. Your comments have been saying things like, Amy.

You cannot be gatekeeping comedy at a time like this. Or the entire world is in shambles, Amy. Please give us Philly justice so we have a reason to live. Or in the name of Lil' Sebastian, please. So people are asking to see this dumb thing that we did. And we thought, why not premiere it only?

on good hangs the only place you can see it slash hear it is on this podcast and who better to talk about the creation of this particular little inside joke that was on parks and rec than the creator of Parks and Recreation, the wonderful, amazing Mike Schur. Mike Schur is a producer of all the shows that you love. Mike helped work on the American version of The Office. He went on to create Parks and Recreation.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place. He's in his second season of A Man on the Inside at Netflix. He is just an incredible writer, friend, person in the world. I love him dearly and owe a lot to him. Nothing pleases Mike more than...

This kind of dumb joke and idea. So Mike is my guest today. We're going to talk about Philly Justice, the creation of it, and we're going to all watch it together. We're also going to talk about other things. We're going to talk about the beginning of Parks and Recreation. We're going to talk about meeting at...

SNL. We're going to talk about systems and how important they are to both of us that work is a place of joy. We're going to talk about all the crazy names he likes to come up with for his characters. And we're going to be visited by some very special... Actors, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, we're going to hear from a bunch of people. who were in Parks and Recreation and in Philly Justice, who are telling us about how we made it, including the great Morgan Sackett, who is a producer.

on a lot of the shows Mike and I work on. He's an incredible producer and he's going to let us, he's going to remind us how we got away with making this dumb trailer. So there's a lot of things going on. But basically. Interview with Mike Schur. We're going to talk to the cast of Philly Justice. We're going to watch this minute and a half trailer for hopefully the first and only time here on Good Hang.

This one is for the fans. This one is for the fans. We heard you loud and clear. We're giving it to you. We don't like to tease around here. We like to please. And we like to squeeze. And we like to do it with ease. Is this sounding any less gross? Okay. All right. Let's get started. Welcome to Good Hang. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock.

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I'm sure I realize I'm with probably the most accomplished podcaster I've interviewed yet is you. That just means you haven't interviewed any podcasters yet. No, I have not talked to a lot of podcasters. Because I realize on the way over here, I'm like, you've had a podcast, the PauseCast, for many years. Yeah, for like an absurd number of years. I mean, you were ahead of the game. I don't know if it...

If the first seven years even count, because it was, we were like, we're barely recording it. We were just screaming into our computers. We didn't have microphones. Who's the we that you speak of? Joe Posnanski and myself, sports writer, award-winning sports writer, Joe Posnanski and me. And we started it a million years ago, but we haven't really... It hasn't been anything approaching an actual extant enterprise for more than five years, I would say.

The word extant really lets us know that we're with Mike Schur, Harvard-educated writer and creator. Pish posh. I'm so thrilled to have you here. And we're going to talk about something very exciting today. But I do have you in this studio. So I do want to talk about us a little bit and our work together before. I love us. I do love us. Oh, this is us. One of another great show from NBC. But before I do that.

When I plug this thing into my laptop, it goes weird. Nothing happens. Well, like, so, you know, I don't know if you know, Bill Simmons told me in the very beginning, we love Bill. Sure. Boston.

One of Boston's greatest. One of Boston's most. One of Boston's most. One of the most Boston people there is. That's very true. I mean, and I think of you as a Boston person. You're not. You're a Connecticut person. Yeah, but I identify full Boston. You do identify. I'm literally wearing a Celtics sweatshirt right now because the Celtics are playing a playoff game right now. I can't watch it because I'm here with you. And so I wore this as like a shield to protect myself against evil.

And the city of Boston, for that matter. Yeah, and you're a huge Red Sox fan. Yes. And I do want to talk about sports because this is a podcast. Yeah. But before I do, so Bill told me not. On Bill Simmons' network. Yeah. Yeah. And you really should. It's a law. I assume it's a law. Yeah, you have to. You do have to do 10% of sports. Sports talk or you get fired. If you don't mention Jim Rice once, you're canceled.

But Bill said, maybe not. Don't use the laptop. And I kind of have fought to keep it. And what's happening now is it's going cuckoo when I plug this thing in. Don't use the laptop for what? For like notes? Just for like. Referencing. He was like, why do you need the laptop? And I was like, hey, you know, what's it to you? You know? And he was like, I'm just giving you a suggestion. By the way, this is a very Boston exchange.

Just someone offering advice and the person coming back at them hard with like, what? Like, let's fight. I got to get Bill on the podcast because you're right. It is like... You once described to me, do you remember this? You once described to me as the...

You said to me that the city motto of Boston should be, must be nice. Remember this? Yeah, must be nice. Yeah, and you described a situation in which when we were at SNL, you would go home and see your friends or people that you grew up with, and you would go out for drinks. And if you paid...

The attitude would be like, oh, must be nice. Got a big Hollywood show, whatever. And if you didn't pay, it was like, oh, must be nice. Make all that money in Hollywood and still get your friends to pick up your drinks. You can't win. You can't win. You know what they say about Boston.

You don't even have to put a net over the traps when you catch the lobsters. Because with Boston lobsters, if one tries to crawl out, the other one will just pull them back down. I've been pulling back down. But I love my city. I do love my city. Can I tell you one quick thing that is going to be of vital importance for this podcast? Yeah. I found out a piece of shocking information today. Oh, exciting. Is this breaking news? Breaking news. Okay. Your dad.

Oh, no. And my mom go to the same barber. What? Yes. My mom lives in Bedford, Mass. Went to her barber today. Got her hair cut. Barber said, you know who comes in here? Oh, boy. Do you know Amy Poehler? Amy Poehler's dad comes in here. And I guessed your dad recently switched barbers for reasons I don't want to get into that are very, very private. You can tell me off the air. I'll tell you off the air.

But my mom said, you're not going to believe this to her barber. My son and Amy Poehler are friends and used to work together. And you can imagine. The fireworks that happened in that barbershop. That is so cute. Isn't that adorable? That's really, that's a really nice story. It's literally breaking news as of like 2 p.m. Pacific time today.

Yeah, my father, Bill Poehler, he'll want me to say his first and last name, and you should say your mother's first and last name. Ann Herbert. Yep, so Ann, Bill and Ann, thank you for keeping your hair tidy, number one. Yeah, first of all. And two— For raising us. Yeah. We appreciate that. But my dad likes to start most conversations in the Boston area with going up to random people and saying, do you like TV and movies?

And they go, yeah? And he goes, oh, well, my daughter is Amy Poehler. What a coincidence. Yeah, my daughter. And they go, oh, because they're like, okay. What percentage of people say no to that question? No. My dad used to rent apartments as like a side hustle. He was in real estate renting because he was a public school teacher. Both my parents were, and they would have summer jobs.

He used to ask me for a stack of headshots so he could hand them out when he was renting apartments. And after many years of therapy, I realized that was a boundary that maybe I should set. So you gave them to him. I did at first. Yeah. Cause it's Boston, you know, like it must be nice. Like, Oh, you don't think you think you're so great. You can't. Oh, you want to have people in Boston looking at your headshot. Your father's proud of you. Oh, boo-hoo. Mike Schur is here.

All this will be cut, right? I mean, literally, all it will be is just very slow typing on this laptop. Well, I just sip water and wait for you to find whatever you're looking for.

Oh, can I ask you, though, because you like organizing. You like systems. I do. You love a good system. Love rules, love systems. And I would say overall. Being in your simulation, and I know I can speak for many people, is kind of the best feeling in the world. You have great systems. Thank you. You take pride in them. People that are in your systems are very well taken care of, very well considered, and in my case, it changed my life.

to be in your system. And I love a good system too. And what I love about your systems is you think long and hard about what would be the best way or approach to do things. Like you're not, you're not a, you are not a. strict person who doesn't take feedback about your system. Yeah. But you like your systems. Love them. And I believe that people do their best work.

when there's like a strong system that also allows for freedom within the system. That is why I love working with you and people like Andy Samberg, people who are like from the SNL world specifically because they're... roll with the punches people yeah but and all you have to do is like set up the boundaries you put out the gate you put lay out the fence and you're like anywhere in here is fine and then

And this is actually very appropriate for what we're going to be talking about today. Once you've, I believe, set up a sort of like boundary and like a mechanism and like you're going to be in the yard from two to four, you carry your toys, you can do anything you want from two to four, and then you're back inside. That...

And then you get the funniest people you can who are the most comfortable and happy. And you say, like, don't worry, everything's taken care of. Rules are in place. Fence is in place. Go crazy. And you let people do their best.

most fun, most joyous work. I really believe, and this isn't like revelatory, but I really believe that is the best way to work creatively in a group. And the reason this is relevant, and I don't want to jump the gun here, but the thing we're going to be talking about today. Very much came out of a world where because we had this really great system in place and then went out and just found the funniest people we could find to come make this thing with us.

crazy things happen, like wonderful things happen that are just the result of just creative juices flowing and people feeling happy and free. Someone said to me once, and I believe this is true, that in

Creative enterprises, everyone is either in survival mode or creative mode. And if you're in survival mode, like you're worried about your job, you don't feel safe in your place of work, there's a threat somewhere, you feel like you're not being listened to, whatever.

No one can be creative. And your job as like a manager of any kind at any level is to like flip that switch and get people back into creative mode where they feel like comfortable and warm and happy and safe. And that's when people do good work. And I think. maybe the defining principle of Parks and Rec was that everyone was in creative mode all the time. We were in survival mode with outside forces. Are we going to get canceled? Is this it? Are we done?

But that's over there. We can control that. Within the fence that we put out for the show, we worked at all times to make sure everybody was in creative mode, and that's why crazy things like this happened. God, so well said. Thank you for setting that up. I often and always speak about you and our experience on Parks and Rec as the perfect example of what it's like to be creative and not chaotic. And I think you and I both have worked in all kinds of different areas where...

chaos was kind of part of the deal. And, you know, there is certainly an energy that comes from that, but one does not have to have a chaotic or dysfunctional experience to have a creative experience. That is correct. And for a very long time.

in Hollywood, I think, especially. But it's not, this is not located only in Hollywood. This is everywhere. I think there's a belief sometimes that, like, if something good... results from a chaotic atmosphere then there's like a weird response where it's like well this is the only way that something good can happen like we got this good thing and

the process was chaos. So we better not try to fix the chaos when like a rational person would think let's fix the chaos. And then there will be more opportunities for more creative things that will also cause less pain and suffering.

That's what I just can't stand about, though, about Hollywood specifically. I think it's weirdly gotten better. I don't know if this has been your experience. I think so. I think it's just, like, there's a little bit more, like... diverse gatekeepers and a little bit more, you know, push from frankly generations behind us who have just like reminded us that we don't need to.

Put up with behavior that we were used to putting up with. Yeah. And just a little bit more quality of life stuff where people are just a little bit less okay with having their lives ruined at work. I mean, like when you and I were coming up, it was like whatever the system was, you were just like, okay. Oh, yeah. You just like grit your teeth and you like put your head down and you try to survive. Yeah. And the generation behind us and especially the one behind that generation. Yeah.

looks at chaos and goes like, oh, then no, thank you. Like, then no. Like, I don't, I don't want to, they just, they have a... They don't have, I think, the sort of like structural fear that we had of just like, if this is what's going on, then I will just suffer and tolerate it.

And I think younger folks are just like, oh, then I won't be a part of it. Well, my bad standup about it is boomers are all about money. Gen X is like, is it all about money? Millennials are like, where is the money? And Gen Z is like, what is money?

That's my bad stand-up about it. Not bad. It's good. Thanks. I have been doing that on stage. Okay. So we could talk forever. I mean, we could do two, three, four podcasts. Maybe someday we will. And I'd love to have you back as a guest to talk. to dig in even deeper with like park super fans and all the other projects that you do. But those to me are like.

Other wives that you have, and I'd rather not discuss them while we're together. I understand. It's painful for you. Congratulations on the success of Hacks and the success of Good Place. Congratulations on second season of A Man Inside. Thank you. But right now you are with your family.

I need you. And this is Thanksgiving and we are going to put on nice sweaters and God damn it, we are going to sit down and have a nice meal. That's right. And it's 6 p.m. That's right. Your new girlfriend will come and pick you all up and drive you away from me. And I'm fine with her and I'm very happy for you. But so we're going to talk about parks. But to do that, let's talk about. So you went to Harvard. Yeah.

Which, by the way, a great, great month for Harvard. You know, I've talked some shit about Harvard on here already, but I'm a big flip-flopper. Now I love Harvard. I'm going to say, first truly good month for Harvard. Since its founding in 1636. I was like, how far back do I have to go? Oh, maybe all the way. Yeah. Good job, Harvard. Listen, we took it on the chin. We have our share of Jared Kushner's and Ted Cruz's and also everyone on the Supreme Court and all that sort of stuff.

And Zuckerberg, you can't forget about Zuck. I never do. Facebook. Finally, Harvard is like, hey, we have all the money. Yeah. And so we'll say no to the bully. And people were like, oh my God, you can do that. It's exciting. But you came from Harvard and we met. Do you remember when we first met? No. I remember when I saw you for the first time, which was at a UCB sketch thing that happened at Fez. Oh, yeah.

I've told this story before. I don't know if you want to, I don't know how in depth you want to go here. I'd love to go in depth. Cause we don't get, we're, we're going to talk Philly justice, but we have some time. Great. So I, I moved to New York. Radford graduated 97 and 98.

was working for Jon Stewart. No, late 97. I was working for Jon Stewart. He was writing a book and I was pitching my ideas for the book and he used none of them and gave me $3,000 and it was amazing. It was my first professional job. Thank you, Jon Stewart. So he gave you that money to go away. That's right. He looked at my ideas and was like, oh no. Yeah. He was like, you're making me nervous. Please go away. He was like, does three grand get you out of my office? So.

I went to, I heard about all these comedy shows that happened and I was very excited to see comedy. Went to Fez to see John do standup. And so you came out on stage. I did not know who you were. And you said, hey, everyone, I know you're excited to hear the standup, the Jon Stewart and all these other comedians. My name is Carol Johnson. I'm from HBO and I'm casting a pilot.

And so before, if you don't mind with your indulgence, I'd love to just do some. And I was like, oh, there's a nice woman from HBO here who is casting a pilot. This is so interesting. This is how show business works. I 100% bought it. Hook, line, and sinker. I did not understand that I was at a comedy show and that this was probably a piece of comedy. And then you announced that you were doing this pilot and you asked if anyone... You said that someone...

I don't remember exactly, but it was something like someone needed to be able to do a Bill Cosby impression. This shows you how long ago this is. Yeah, sure. And Matt Besser, another person I did not know. was like volunteered and you're like, oh yes, sir, please come right on up here. And then he proceeded to do like the worst Bill Cosby impression of all time. And you in the role of straight person were just like, ah, boy, I'm not sure if that really fits the bill.

And he kept doing it and kept doing it. And then I think Matt Walsh was like, I can do one. And he got up and did it. And you were, it was even worse. And you were like, yeah, this isn't really what we're looking for. And I, I remember this so clearly. I was like this poor woman from. HBO is just trying to cast her pilot. And these guys are terrible. And when I was having that thought, I was like, this is a sketch, I'm pretty sure. But there's a reason I tell this story, which is you're...

was so real and grounded, I legitimately was blown away. I was like, I... was brought three minutes into this incredibly stupid premise before it occurred to me that you were not really Carol Johnson from HBO. No. And then I remember going, I remember talking to someone after the show and being like, who was that? And they were like, this group called UCB. And I was like, that woman was incredible. And they were like.

The straight woman? And I was like, yes, she was incredible. Who is that? How does she have time to be in a sketch group when she works at HBO? She's a multi-talented person. But I remember then repeating that like this, they were so funny and everything. And then someone was like, that's Amy Poehler. Like everyone in New York already knew you. And I was just like that, that I, you just like, you just like.

burrowed into my brain. And then when you joined the show, I started working at SNL a few months later. Yep. That year was, what year did you start? I started January of 98. Yes, 98. Yeah. So you came, whatever. 2001. 2001. So September, 2001. Yeah. And I don't remember where. We interacted between those dates, but I remember that when you auditioned...

You can't in my office. And we smoked cigarettes in my office because I was running update. Oh, remember cigarettes? Let's just take a minute. I mean, I know they're bad for you. They're so bad for you. And like, you know, they truly are bad for you. They shorten your life. They make your skin terrible. But they're, oh, remember them? They're really, really terrible. They're so terrible. And I looked so cool doing that terrible thing.

And we would smoke cigarettes. And we would, you know, at 30 Rock, you could just kind of open your window and look at the Empire State Building. Yeah. SNL was, like, grandfathered into all rules everywhere. And you could just, like, no one except us was on the 17th floor. to open your window and smoked out the window. And it was terrible. And it was terrible. And then you were eventually, when did you start running Update, Weekend Update? Your...

First show was my first update show. That's right. So gosh, I forget that. That was your first. I took it. So Robert Carlock was running it and he left. And I remember talking to Mike Shoemaker. beloved producer at the time, now runs Seth Meyers' show. And I was like, boy, I'm not sure I can do this job. Like, I don't really know what I'm doing. And he was like, it's super easy. Like, you just choose the best jokes and whatever. And I was like, okay, like, it sounds fun.

And then 9-11 happened. And so my first show running the like funny fake news was 9-11. And it was your first show on the show. That's right. Yeah. And so, right. I was this new cast member and you were running Weekend Update at a time when comedy was declared over. Yes. And when we'll never laugh again. That's right. And the first... thing that happened on the show for your first show and my first show writing update was like

Rudy Giuliani, pre-insanity Rudy Giuliani, and like cops and firefighters and MTA workers standing at home base and talking about like resilience and the power of humanity. And then Paul Simon singing The Boxer. Yeah. And then it was like, okay, and you're Britney Spears. Go. Remember? That was your sketch. You had a snake wrangler. It didn't make it. It got cut. Did it really? I thought I made it. It's good that it did.

And by the way, I was not Britney Spears. You were the snake wrangler. I was the very sapphic snake wrangler. Who was Britney Spears? Was it Reese Witherspoon? Oh, Reese Witherspoon. She was the host, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. So then- Mike says to us, I'm going to go work on a show. I'm really excited. I'm going to leave SNL. I'm going to move. Everyone always wants to launch away from SNL, hopefully with some kind of project or something.

And you told us the idea, and we were like, oh, this is a bad idea. This is a bad idea, yeah. It was the American adaptation of the British office. And we had watched, we had all watched the British office together, including the very special Christmas episodes that we watched in your office. Seth got early from his friend in England and we watched them in my office and.

We all like laughed and cried. And when Dawn came back and kissed him. Spoiler alert. Yeah. Spoiler for a 20 year old British show. We all like jumped up in the air and like. like we were celebrated, like we won the Superbowl. Yeah. And then a couple months later, I was like, I'm going to go turn that into, well, help turn that into it.

an American show. Yeah. And we, and I remember us thinking like, Oh no, this is never gonna work. Yeah. We were really like, Oh, this is, this is terrible. Yeah. Perfect show. How can you redo it? And then of course we heard a couple of things. We heard Steve Carell, who is a Second City guy that we knew in Chicago. We were like, that's a good idea. That's a good pick. And we were like, we knew that you were working on it and others who are genius writers. And Greg Daniels, we thought, well.

look, you got a good team. You're going to go down in flames, but it's going to be fun. It'll be like a cult classic thing or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I signed on for two reasons. Number one, it was only job offer I got. But more importantly, because I met with Greg and my wife, J.J. Philbin, had worked on Coupling, which was another British show that had been adapted.

and had not worked out. And Greg was like, so scientific about it. He was like, what do you think went wrong? And where did, what did they do? And what did they not do? And we ended up talking in his office for like three hours. And I was like, This isn't going to work. It's a bad idea. Everybody thinks it's a bad idea. But this guy is so smart and has thought about this so carefully that this will at least be an incredible...

Like he's going to teach me things about writing. And so I was not expecting it to work. I don't think anyone was except maybe Greg. But it was like, this is going to be an education for me. And going from sketch writing to real or a half hour writing, you know. And then on that show, you are on for how many years? The first four. First four plus.

And then decide with Greg to create a new show. And it might be fun to talk about just the, like, all the kind of, I think it's always a good reminder. I think you and I are very much like this. I think it's kind of important to show your work. Like I think people think that ideas are these like fully formed things that are just realized instantly. And in my opinion, people that are. less secure, tend to pretend that they are, but secure people, I think, tend to kind of talk about

all the ways that they approached something and how they had to re-approach, I guess. But in the very, very beginning, the idea for the spinoff of The Office, or was it even an idea for spinoff, was what? Well, so Ben Silverman was running NBC, and he asked Greg to do a spinoff. And so Greg's response, typically thoughtful and considered, was, I would love to do another show.

If the best idea that I have for a show is a spinoff, then I will do a spinoff. If the best idea I have is something else, I'll do something else. Greg is a real, one of the main... things that he gave me in terms of like how to do this job is best idea wins. Doesn't matter who it comes from. If it's staff writer or a 25 year veteran co-EP or a person who works in costumes or whatever, best idea wins. That's it.

And there is no corollary to that. In every situation that you're in creatively, best idea wins. And so that's what he said basically to Ben. And he was like, it's very important to me that you understand that if the best idea I have is not a...

spin-off of The Office, then we're going to do something else. And Ben was like, totally hear you, buddy. And the next day in the variety, it was like, Office spin-off is coming. Ben just totally ignored him and just announced an Office spin-off. Sure. So... So Greg and I started meeting. Greg asked me to do it with him. So we started meeting. We would go to Norm's diner in the Valley like twice a week for breakfast.

And we would just think of ideas and we would talk about what interested us and what was going on. And we would inch down a little path and then hit a dead end and then inch back. And we would, we just met constantly over showing your work. We met. all the time, forever. And eventually came up with the idea of like, you know, and by the way, just to say it.

Some of the ideas we talked about were office spinoffs. There were like Craig Robinson and Rainn Wilson and all these people on the show who could clearly be in their own show. So we talked about family shows with them or whatever. Greg was, I think, wary of taking assets away from. a show that was very successful in part because of its large, rich cast.

We stumbled upon this idea of like, okay, Dunder Mifflin on The Office is a fake company and it's a way to satirize the private sector. What if we create a whole fake town and satirize the public sector? And as we're having that idea, the world economy goes kablooey. And they're talking about like massive government bailouts. And we start to realize that like the government.

obviously federal really, but also state and local was like going to be very present in people's lives. Like people were going to be like looking to the government for help. So we started getting excited about that. I had this idea for an abandoned lot that would be turned into a park over the course of the entire run of the show

Very wire-y idea. I was obsessed with the wire, as were you. Yeah, we share that. And I thought, like, the way that the wire... portrayed like calcified systems and how slow gears grind and stuff was fascinating to me and I thought it would be really funny. If you did a show that ideally lasts for a long time and in the pilot, it's like, we're going to do this. And then it literally doesn't get done until the very end of like nine years later.

That was the idea that I really liked. Greg then was like, what if it's not a lot? What if there's like a giant hole in the ground? What if it's a pit? And I was like, that's so much better. And so that idea of all the 73 ideas we had started to like... Fizzy, fizzy up. And it obviously is not a spinoff of The Office. And Greg, true to his word, was like, this is what we want to do. At some point, we called you because we heard you were leaving.

And you were like, I'm theoretically interested in this. Let me know. The show was given a guaranteed 13 episode order, which now is very commonplace at the time was like insane. And. The Office was going to be on after the Super Bowl that year, and this show was going to launch after The Office. Then you called us back and said, actually, sorry, prego. That's exactly what you said. Yeah, I said prego. You said prego. Prego. I sent you a telegraph.

I said, prego, stop. Show's off, stop. And it was like, well, you're going to give birth like the week we have to shoot this, so no go. And then like, I remember very clearly two weeks later, I went into Greg's office and I was like, you know, there's no, like we had, we were working on the show at that point. Pretty. strenuously and i was just like i just don't think there's anyone but polar who can do this and he was like i had the same thought last night and very quickly

We made a phone call to NBC and said, if we can get Amy for this, we will give up seven of the 13 guaranteed episodes because we'd only be able to make six. Dang. And give up the Super Bowl slot. Boy, you guys were— I'm so appreciative you did that. I mean, the thing was, it was actually— a very simple decision because we were like, you know, getting Amy Poehler on your show is a long-term decision. Like that's a decision you make for like this.

what you hope will be a very long chunk of time, like the Super Bowl slot is a short-term decision. It's like, yeah, you'll get this like frisson of energy, but like it doesn't last. Like no one ever, like very rarely does that. determine the fate of a tv show and so we then called you back and said what if you could start shooting three months after you give birth and then we made the show and it proved to be the

Most satisfying creative experience I've ever had. More than this podcast? No, this is my number one. So it's number two. I mean, besides this. When you hear Lululemon, you probably think of a line yoga pants, weightlessly soft, like you're wearing next to nothing. That's why you see them in class, at the grocery store, and in the park. But did you know about skirts with built-in liner shorts so you can still jump for the frisbee?

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Download the Experian app. Trust me, having a BFF like this is a total game changer. Now, one of the ways, like very concrete ways that is, I feel like an example of what I'm talking about, which is like the joy in the details is the way you like to name characters. Yeah.

And I think you gave me, I think you allowed me to use this in my book actually, but you gave me like a list of possible names instead of Leslie Knope, the character I played on Parks and Rec. You gave me like a bunch of different alternative names. But you also love to name characters left and right. What is fun about names for you and naming? Okay, so it's two things. The first is, growing up, first major comedic influence, Monty Python.

Monty Python, experts at silly, stupid names, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. You can go look them up in their sketches. But the actual thing that's going on here is different. I would go to actors' IMDb pages to see what they had been in when we were casting them in the early days of the show. And you would see, like, woman number two or, like, man in crowd or guy with sandwich. And it really bummed me out.

Because I love actors. I love them so much. I think that their job, people will scoff when I say this, I think they have the hardest job of any job when it comes to making a show. It is so hard. Anyone who... doesn't believe this should try it, by the way. Try acting. Our buddy Ted Danson gave me the best line, which is acting is embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's hard. You have to summon something. Comedic timing or... dramatic performance or tears or anger or whatever, like instantly.

with cameras on you and lights on you, wearing makeup and clothes that aren't yours, and a hundred people staring at you and a big dude holding a microphone four inches from your face. And when it's... When people can do it well, I think it's like a, it's like a miracle worthy of beatification at the Vatican. And so I would see these people on IMDb and it would be like man in crowd. And it would be like that person, like.

audition for this and book this gig and drove all the way across town and like put on fake clothes and put on makeup and whatever, and had to stand in a certain place, follow a million instructions, say a line or two, and then. They yelled cut and then that person drove all the way home and they got paid like $600 for like a week's worth of work. And they should be...

there should be something better than man number two or man in crowd. And so I decided at that moment, this is early in season one, I think of Parks and Rec, that every character who appeared on the show was going to have a first and last name. So when you saw... If it says man in crowd, you're like, oh, well, that doesn't really count as an acting gig. But if you see Marv Vavavma, which is a name I gave a character once, you're like, who the hell is Marv Vavavma? What was Marv Vavavma up to?

So I, and it has been that way it started with that intention and has become one of the great, truly one of the great. joys of my life is to give every because here's the other thing sorry you can cut all this out but the other thing is if you name a character Jack Smith yeah you can get away with it because there are 10 trillion Jack Smiths. But if you name a character, anything even mildly interesting, like Winona Cooper.

There's going to be like four Winona Coopers in the state that you're setting the show in. And then the legal comes back and says you can't name a character that. A lot of people don't know that. You have to get names cleared. You have to be cleared. And there have to be either none. Or so many that not any one of them could be, could think that you're saying anything about them. So I go for none. Yeah. I go for the weirdest names. We had a character recently.

on the show, on a man on the inside named Ophelio Papipepepe. There's no Ophelia Papipepepe's anywhere in the continental United States. So you get to use that name. That has been my goal is to have none, have the Google search come up empty with every name of every character. Okay, with that in mind, will you please read some of these names that you have invented? Yeah. Like just a few here on the bottom of this page. Okay.

Mona Lisa Saperstein. Yes. Jenny Slate's character. Yes. Do you remember all these? Yeah. Amazing. Trod Frankenstipe. Okay, tell us about Trot. So Trot Frankesteip was a local reporter, or he had almost like a little show like this in Pawnee where he would interview political people like Leslie Knope.

A great way to come up with a name that doesn't exist is to take a normal name like Todd and then just stick another letter in there somewhere. And then Frankenstipe is just Frankenstein with a P at the end. Tyrion Fonzarelli. Tyrion Fonzarelli, obviously a combination of two characters from TV history, Tyrion Lannister and Arthur Fonzarelli. This name goes to Matt Murray. Matt Murray did this. Ah, Panther. Yeah, Panther. Tyrion Fonzarelli was a guy in a jewelry store who was buying a...

an engagement ring for his to be betrothed when Anne and Chris Traeger were shopping for rings. Great. Leslie Knope. Yep. Gretzky Susan Pellegrino. Okay. This... So Gretzky Susan Pellegrino was like the fourth in a series of names that for some reason... all involve the last name of the greatest hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretzky. I don't offhand remember who Gretzky Susan Pellegrino is. Also, it should be noted hyphens.

huge part of my naming process. Yeah. So exciting. It's a way to get another name in there. Another name. And also there's no way that someone's going to have this name. No one's first name. is Gretzky Susan. Gretzky hyphen Susan. Typhoon Montalban. Oh, I love Typhoon. Typhoon was Donna's hairdresser. Yep. Typhoon, also Matt Murray, I believe named... I gave Typhoon the first name Typhoon. We needed a last name. Where do you go for the last name? Ricardo Montalban. Typhoon Montalban.

So Sandra Sassnorp. Okay. So Sandra Sassnorp was, I believe I could have this wrong, was just Sandra. It was like Sandra Snorp. Okay. And then the legal was like, doesn't, didn't clear. We found a Sanders Knorp somewhere. We found a Sanders Knorp. So guess what you do? You add five more S's. Now you're good. It's a Sanders. It's a Sanders Ass Knorp. Summer Oli Kraken Frog Frog. Okay. This is a Monty Python ripoff, straight up. Okay. Ole, O-L-E with an accent, and I guess just that part.

There's a Monty Python sketch called, I think, Election Night Special, where they're just going through election results and local elections all over the country. And there's a silly party. And a sensible party. So all the people in the sensible party have names like John Smith and all the people in the silly party have very crazy names. And there's also a very silly party. And a slightly silly party. If you want names, go watch that sketch. It'll sate you.

Summer Ole Kraken Frog Frog. That's a good one. Frog Frog is a great last name. Great one. Yeah. And then this one, do you have, are you involved with this one with hacks? No. CC Homo. I thought that wasn't sure. CC Homo. And you know what? I don't want to talk about hacks. That's fine.

They'll be here at six to pick me up. Jenna made me do that. Cece Homo, H-O-M-E-A-U-X, was all Jen Statsky and Lucia Agnello and Paul Downs. I don't know which one of them came up with it. Yes, but spelled differently than it said. It's a very funny moment in the show because she introduced herself. of a CZ homo and Gina Smart goes, spell that. Okay. Oh, and you know, let's get into Philly Justice because we have some special guests that are going to be joining us to talk about Philly Justice.

For those listening, stand by because we have very, very exciting guests. Probably should have mentioned this so long ago. Oh, yeah. Can you do me a favor and go back and record that? Well, we do record. We often record the beginning.

After the interview, so I can talk about what we talked about. Please, don't make people sit through Summer Olay Crack and Frog Frong before they get to the famous people. And a lot of people don't know that we record the interview after the person leaves. Oh. So, yeah. So this is just us talking. This is not being recorded.

This is just to capture the AI modulation of my voice. Yes. And then you make me say whatever you want me. Of course. I mean, it's just so hard. Honestly, it's a relief at this point. AI is a relief. I keep saying that. It really is.

And we might also want to do a little teaser, too, to say that you and I are thinking when this comes out. Yeah. we will have announced that we're working together again on something exciting. Very exciting. So we're back together again. We are renewing our vows, if you will. I had my fun.

That's right. I ran around town. Yes. And I realized that what I really needed was under my nose the whole time. Yoko knew that John needed a break. Okay. And she let him wander and he came back. So. You know, everyone needs a break sometimes, but you're back.

Yeah, I'm back. And we're very, very excited to work together again. That's a whole separate podcast. I think it is. I think it is. But it's just a little teaser. Okay, so we will do another episode on Parks, we promise, for those listening. But in the meantime, we need to get to—

I think a more important TV show. By far. And that is called Philly Justice. Yeah. Now, to explain to people listening, what the heck is this? I don't know about a show called Philly Justice. Well, you shouldn't. It's not real. But I'll just set it up, and then I need you to tell us the history. Very briefly, Philly Justice is a fake TV show that we made up.

A few cast members made up on the set of Parks and Rec one day because we looked at a picture of ourselves and we laughed and we said, oh, we look like we're in a TV show called Philly Justice. That small inside joke on set laugh. grew into a beast that is still discussed today. So what do you remember about the beginnings of Philly Justice? So this is like season four of Parks and Rec, I think. You're running for—let's know it's running for office. And we have—

in this season, incredible regular guest stars on the show. Katherine Hahn. played a campaign manager, a high-powered campaign manager from D.C. who was running the campaign of Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd. Yeah. And Bobby Newport was the moron son of a wealthy businessman who didn't want the job at all. but was running against Leslie, and it's Leslie's greatest dream, and Bobby Newport does not care at all. And in fact, in the finale of the show, when he loses...

There's a brief clip of him on TV being interviewed and he says, honestly, this is a huge relief, which is one of my favorite. It's an incredible Paul Rudd moment. So in this episode we were shooting. You were all in like campaign mode, which meant you were maybe uncharacteristically wearing like a very smartly tailored suit. Yep. And Rashida was, Ann Perkins was also wearing something like that.

Jen Barkley, Catherine's character, is always high-powered suit lady. And Paul Rudd is there and Adam Scott is there who usually wore ties and suits and stuff. And so this is what I remember is that...

someone came running up and said, look at this picture. And it was all five of you. And I think it was just a wardrobe picture. It was like, let's get a picture. They take pictures of characters all the time. Yeah. Just to say like, okay, this is what they look like in case we have to recreate this. And that I think maybe Rashida had said...

Someone had said, we look like we're in a David E. Kelly show, like a legal drama. And I think Rashida maybe just said Philly justice. And we'll put the picture up here, but it look, we're just kind of nailing it. You're just like, you're in the mode of that, of that kind of show. That's right. So then what I heard, and this stuff was like bleeding up to me in the writer's room, is that you guys had started kind of just, you were like, this is the thing we're doing now is we're...

Coming up with like characters and scenes and like moments of dialogue for our characters from this fake show that you had invented called Philly Justice, which was a David E. Kelly show from like 2005. Yeah. That had. shot the pilot and it had never aired and you were all goofing around and improvising, right? Like improvising just like who you were and what the show was about.

So it just kept wafting up to the writer's room that like everyone was really enjoying this bit. Great. Fantastic. Then I think we all collectively blacked out.

And when we woke up, the writers had written. scenes for Philly justice. Like we, like a 20 page script. Yeah. Like writers, it should be noted in comedy rooms. We'll take any excuse not to work. Of course. Writing is the worst. It's the worst. And it's, and if there's like a fun, a more fun thing. Yeah. Great. Totally. And I do remember at one point...

divvying up scenes for Philly justice the way that a good showrunner would be like, okay, why don't you guys take act one of the next episode and you take act two and whatever. And instead I was like, okay, you guys write this scene where the, where. Adam, Scott, and whoever are like fighting and you take the scene where Rashida is doing this. And we just started writing scenes, fake scenes for a fake show that didn't exist for you in character. While we were making another show. Correct. Now.

We have, in season four of the show, we have built the city council chambers where Leslie was hoping to work someday. The city council chambers looked kind of like a courtroom if you squinted. Yeah. So it was like, okay. And then at some point, I remember Morgan Sackett. Yep, who we're going to talk to today. Coming in and saying like, I think we can shoot all of this stuff in the city council chamber.

And I don't remember when we decided to shoot it. I like that again, we blacked out. Yeah. But suddenly we were just going to do this. We were going to make, we're going to use NBC resources while we're supposed to be making. The show they paid for. Which never suffered. Never suffered. And we're going to take some of those resources and divert them without anyone knowing. Sure. To a different part of the same set. Yeah. And then shoot the scenes from Philly Justice. And by the way.

This is very important for everyone to understand. To no end. There was not a point to this. It wasn't like... we're going to put this on the DVD or we're going to, this is like a backdoor pilot or if this works, we could really do X, Y, and Z. And it wasn't like viral, it wasn't like we're going to make a viral thing or we're going to be talking about it 15, 16 years later. No. It was because it was fun.

And really the thing that I think is the most important thing to get across is that that show was so fun to work on. Everyone was almost singularly devoted to the concept of... having fun yeah and this just seemed fun and it we didn't question it we didn't ask why we were doing it morgan Morgan's job, basically, is to make the show that we're making. He was as gung-ho about this as anyone. He was like, yeah, of course we have to do this. We have to do this.

And the next thing I know, well, then a bunch of stuff happens. And I don't want to go too far. Well, I think this might be a good time to jump onto our Zoom. Perfect time, actually, because we're going to be joined on our Zoom with the cast of Philly Justice, basically. What we'll discuss when we get everybody is there was a casting change. I forgot about that. Okay. And also what we'll talk about is this small joke became hours of emails. Yeah.

character descriptions, tons of scripts, an actual shoot day, a trailer that we're going to show at the end. And nobody has seen this particular trailer. It's very exciting. Now, we did put on the end of one of the blooper reels like a small kind of like fake trailer of Philly Justice. That's right. We did, yes. But we never showed the real deal. And not only are we going to show it to our—

on this podcast, but we're also, a lot of the people here today have never seen it, and we're going to watch them watch it in real time. Very exciting. And just like those video games, and we're going to play video games over them watching the video. Yeah, then I'm going to Twitch. I'm going to do a Twitch stream that has that in a small square while I play Castlevania. Yeah, and then me and Kai Sinat are going to go out and give out.

We're going to Philly Dust's Nintendo. And then that whole thing will be on a video, on a phone that Mr. Beast is holding at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. When he jumps out of the alley. Okay, so let's see. Do we have anyone on yet? Oh my gosh, this is exciting.

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So joining us now, Rashida Jones, Morgan Sackett, and Adam Scott. Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Where is everyone Zooming from? I'm upstairs at a... A barbecue? Family barbecue. Great. In L.A. Morgan? I'm at home in L.A. Adam? I'm in New York, and I happen to be in Aziz's apartment right now. And is Aziz there?

No, no, he's, I locked him out. He's downstairs. He can't get it. Banging on the door. That's right. He's furious. Wait, Sheeta upstairs at a barbecue. Yeah, not mine. I'm in a, I'm in a. person's home. I asked them where their office was. This is where I am. Thank you. That's always the best place at a barbecue is just upstairs by yourself away from everything. In like a stranger's office. It's great.

Just going through their stuff. There's Emmys up here. Just telling you guys. Dang, whose barbecue is this? Can we guess whose barbecue it is? It's also Aziz's barbecue. And he's not allowed in. He's also not there. He's not in either place. By the way, guys, where's Aziz? Yeah. I haven't heard from him in years. If Aziz walks through the background of Morgan's Zoom right now, it'll be the greatest moment in the history of podcasting. I guess we wanted to just start Morgan, if we could.

We were talking about how this picture on set then became a private joke that then became a show that then was written by the writers while we were actually doing a real show. So what do you remember about the first time you heard about it? And could you talk to us about the email that you sent? And also, how were you this irresponsible that you allowed this to happen on your walk? Yeah, really.

It just sort of floated around for a while. I don't know. I thought Colleen, who was our photographer forever, took it. But I talked to her this week. She didn't. I don't know who snapped that photo. Little did they know. It was just with one of our phones. It was on my phone and we got somebody to do it. I don't remember who did it. Okay, so you commissioned the photo yourself because you were enjoying how you all looked in your smartly tailored suits. Okay.

We were enjoying ourselves, yes. The photo was commissioned. Like actors do. We were like, look at how cool we look. Let's take another photo. We were like, we've been photographed all day, but yet it's still not enough. Not enough cameras. I don't feel satisfied somehow. While people around us are doing work, like setting up the next shot, carrying cameras and equipment and stuff, we're like...

Oh, look at us in front of this. You know, just like being. Yeah, we were like, Rashida, somebody take a picture with Rashida's camera. How cool we look. And Rashida, do I have it right? I thought I remembered that you were the one who first said the words Philly Justice as if it were a fake show. Do I have that right? Do you remember? I mean, I'm not going to take credit, but it's probably right because I'm...

I mean, I spent two years on a David Kelly show and like, you know, in David Kelly land. And I think I was like, this is a procedural. This is like a legal procedural. Maybe. I don't know. My memory's not great, but I'll take credit. Well, if you pay attention, everybody is facing one way except for Adam, and that really did end up informing his character. In many ways.

So Adam is the rebel. Nick something, right? Yeah. Nick. Yeah. We'll get it. We'll get to Nick. So Morgan, you are busy working on a show and you hear this stupid thing and you're like, you just. hear us talking about it when did you realize that you wanted to be part of making it into a trailer i don't know i think we it just kept coming up and it's like, and I, I feel like it was when we had that, the city council chambers, you know, that we're like courtroom. And then.

We knew the Barclay Group was coming up, which was Han's character's high-end DC lobbying firm. And it's like, that looks like a law office. So I said, we just talked about it forever and noodled around scripts. And you guys had a very active...

chat going on about it and i sent out an email we i have the email can you read morgan can you read us the email sure dear cast of philly justice we're

Planning to shoot Wednesday, September 19th. The brief storyline is that there's an EPK for Philly Justice pilot shot in the spring of 2002. We're talking to Dylan McDermott, and it looks like we'll work it out to have him join us. We also may get a... interview with david e kelly which we really thought we were going to get we should decide what angle we want to take with him

He wrote it. He saw it. He hated it. He advised Dylan not to do it, et cetera. We're planning to convert the Barkley group set into the offices of Billy Justice team. We're also going to set up a courtroom set. The plan is to shoot a couple of short scenes for the pilot and then interviews with the cast.

Most of the piece will play out in the interview segments. The plan is to dress and groom everyone as 2002 lawyers. That need from everybody is character names and backgrounds. Any bits you want to try in a name for the law firm. Please respond. And at the end, I said, thanks, Morgan Sackett, assistant to the associate producer of Philly Justice. Okay. Morgan, why? Oh, that's great. I just want to know why, Morgan, why? Why did you let this?

I remember emailing David Kelly's people and he was in. And then I got a call like two days before he was going to come. And it's like, I'm sorry, from like some big CA agent or something. It's like, I'm sorry, what is this?

of course and they killed it that went away very quickly i remember getting that email and being so because there were like rumblings like we're actually i think we might shoot something and the writers might be coming up with something and then getting the email and knowing for sure morgan was on board meant that

we might actually be doing this. Yeah. Yeah. If he puts his brain on it, time will be carved out. And it was, I remember just being so excited that we were going to get to do it. Yeah. Because we'd been talking about at that point. Maybe for like six months. I don't know. Did you figure out how long from when we had taken the picture to when we shot this? I don't think it was that long. It was at least most of a season. Oh, was it really?

Yeah, I thought it was a lot. Rashida, do you have any memory of that early part? I can't believe how long it was. I'm like in shock that we spent. I do remember there was a lot of, we talked a lot about our backstories. Not just as characters, but as the people playing the characters and how we interacted with each other on the set of Philly Justice. So it was like meta, meta, meta. Like many, many levels of Inception had been...

have been crafted to like really support the, the truth of this experience. I feel like you two and Han and, um, uh, whoever were on, was an Amy who were on the chat had gotten, you had done so much work and just like in. texting and like doing the bit of the show that you would accidentally created this very elaborate backstory. And one of the pieces of the backstory was that Dylan McDermott had been in the pilot. He, of course, a veteran of the practice and of other shows like that.

And then at some point, and this is where we need Morgan, when did we reach out to Dylan McDermott to say, we're doing this insane thing for no reason. Do you want to be a part of it? And how did that go exactly? Do you remember? I think that we wanted to do it and we're like, we have these sets and we can shoot it.

And Rudd was doing a movie or something was not available. Right. That should be clear that Paul Rudd was not available. So instead of killing the. fake show within the real show, we said, let's recast with Dylan McDermott, who very, very nicely said, yes, I'm in. Yeah. He didn't even, he said,

I don't even think he said, what is this? He just said, I'm game. I'm in. Well, also, so then the, but the lore in the meta, meta, meta world became that Paul Rudd had been that character and had been recast after the table read. And been replaced by Dylan McDermott, which is why he was going to be in it and not Paul. And during that time, we started talking about our characters. And if we have a second, because I know I don't have everybody for very long. If we could...

Read the character descriptions of our characters. Bones, now you're in a car. I see you're in a car. Fleeing the barbecue. Now you're driving. This is a real active Zoom here. Yes, I'm here. Okay, I'm sending you the character description. Are you actually driving or is someone driving? No. Wouldn't that be terrible? No. Okay. Okay. So if I may. Have our actors here, and then we'll fill in with Hans and Rudd slash McDermott's character. Sure.

Rashida, would you mind telling us the character you came up with for Philly Justice so when we watch the trailer, we know what kind of stuff you were working with? Yeah, yeah, you got it. Okay, so I was... I was playing Joey Martinez, who was a first-year associate. She had a really rough background. She came from a hard family background. She doesn't like to talk.

But she's the one that gives it to you straight when you don't ask for her opinion. And that's the beauty of Joey is that even when you don't ask, she's going to tell you what she thinks. Yeah, that's Joey. That's Joey.

And women don't like her in the firm, like especially Holly, but women in general don't like her in the firm because she's, you know. And Holly was my character and it was fun for us to play enemies. I'm sorry. I just got the text that Polar sent with these descriptions. They are so long.

They're so long. Yeah. There's hundreds of characters. There's more work put into this than there was into the actual characters from Parks and Rec. Yeah. Well, that's when it makes sense that we spent six months doing it. That's when it really, really makes sense. All right, Adam, you want to talk to us about your character? Sure, Nick Bellows. He's a district attorney. He rides his motorcycle to work, leather jacket with a tie.

was one of the fastest rising attorneys in Manhattan and was being groomed for partner at Powers Cooper and Powers under the tutelage of his mentor slash father figure Blaine Powers. But the morning of September 11th, 2001, Nick was late to work because he was in bed with a woman he'd been secretly seeing. Melina Powers, Blaine Powers White. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The location of Powers Cooper and Powers offices, World Trade Center, North Tower, 67th floor.

Bellows is the only survivor from his firm. Wow. Unbelievable backstory. This is quite a backstory. It's crazy. I mean, think about the guilt. Yeah. I can't imagine. Just below the surface, you know. So Bellows went off the grid. He was believed to have perished along with his colleagues, but in fact, he grabbed his suitcase, leather jacket, and a .357 Magnum and found his way to Afghanistan, determined to fight for justice.

in the one place, the only place that truly needs it. Good Lord. That's also not true. There's a lot of places that need justice. Quite a few. Bellows has more demons than he can count. Now that he's back, he's on the right side of the law. He cares about only one thing, one thing and one thing only, justice. Wow. So just to be clear, he's a district attorney who works at this law firm.

Yeah, for some reason. He is at a private hospital. We didn't know. We didn't know. You know. Wait, see, 9-11 made him grab a pistol and go to Afghanistan. His leather jacket and a gun and go to... I guess independent of the armed forces, he's just over there. Yeah, he just went over there on his own. Hey, guys. Hey, guys, how can I help? So I'll blaze through the other fast ones. So then we had Catherine Hahn, who was Valerie McNeil.

partner, criminal prosecutor, a machine. And no kid's never married. She isn't here. She also is very tough. She cares about the case over everyone else. And in the trailer, there's a moment where you and Catherine kiss. Adam, I'm not sure why, but I always remembered it like, what's the...

The Mandela effect. I always remembered it as Rashida and Catherine kissing. Oh, wait, no, you're not wrong. There was a joke. This is now coming back to me. I think there was a joke that we were going to do a scene where like. Adam and Catherine kissed and then Adam and Rashida kissed and then Catherine and Rashida kissed. And it was, it was like, everyone is.

is like making out with everyone. Okay. I remembered it as such, and I even said it on the pod and a lot of people were excited to see that. And I just want to let everybody know that doesn't happen in the trailer. I'm so sorry. There was no footage of that. All right, what's your character? And very quickly, mine is Holly... McIntyre. Let's see, Holly McIntyre, junior partner, head prosecutor.

Stiff and quick to anger. Doesn't make friends easily. Everybody doesn't make friends. Everyone's the same. Her dad is Cameron McIntyre, owner of the firm. Oh, she's the daddy's girl. Yeah. And she's really worked her butt off to be taken seriously. She's a tough litigator. Her father, played by Corbin Bernson, thinks that she cares too much.

She does. Wait, I'm sorry. Read the one right before that. Holly became a lawyer after a bunch of kids in her town died from lead poisoning. Yeah, sure. Jesus. She's hard on Joey Martinez, but only because she sees a lot of herself in her. Yeah. And she tends to go for married men who are older and a little mean. And then we also have Shane Shames.

That's Dylan's character's name. Also, let's not forget Nick Offerman played the judge. Yeah. Nick, he says he remembers nothing other than he was just hanging around and someone said, can you play the judge? Do you remember that, Morgan?

Yeah. I remember we were talking about the next day we were doing it. It's like, you guys don't work tomorrow. And Nick's like, I'll come in tomorrow. What do I do? And I said, we need a judge. All right. Well, we are very excited. We're going to have a world premiere. Yeah.

And, you know, it's really exciting. I mean, there's not a lot of things that we've just kept in a vault for all this time. No, we threw almost everything we did and then wrote new stuff. for the gag reels that we would release just to let people enjoy the goofiness of the show. But this has remained locked in a vault. So this would have been made in what, Morgan? 2011, 2012. Wow. So it's 13 years old. 13 years. That's pretty wild. I just want to say a lot of people have asked me.

Like what the life, what the future life of Philly Justice is. Yeah. I mean, we got to, you know, it could be nothing. But I think that people are very interested and, you know. Or it could be rebooted. We made me called about doing this. I'm like, this is going to end with us shooting more Philly justice. This is what I'm saying is that that's what I hope happens. Like rebooting a show that never happened. I mean, there's nothing better than that. Rashida, Philly has never.

needed more justice than now I mean justice is needed so I think it's time to make it I mean if there's ever a time It's now. Couldn't agree more. I will say that we, people that are listening to Good Hang, we hear you. You have been demanding to see this. It is release Billy Justice now. That has been many of the comments. The comments are...

Or like, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards Philly justice. Show it to me, Amy. Parentheses, Rachel. Release the tape. Or... accidentally group text it to all of us, which is another great one.

Please, please, please, please. In the words of Leslie, no. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please. So we are listening. We're learning. We're sharing. We are going to play. And will they be able to see it on the Zoom? Okay, are you guys ready to watch it?

Yeah. Okay, here we go. Yes. Really exciting. Amy, are you going to play it? I'm supposed to play it. I'm supposed to play it. There we go. Oh, my God. I'm in charge. Oh, no. Oh, no. You have to keep that. 17 seconds of silence. Okay, so sorry about that, guys. Thank you for waiting. Here we go. For the first time ever on DVD. The legendary courtroom drama that no one has ever seen. Any more witnesses, counselor?

Just one, Your Honor. Joey Martinez, the defense attorney. What? This is preposterous. Your Honor, you can't possibly... Overruled. I hope you know what you're doing, McNeil. Just follow my lead. The show that broke all the rules. Your Honor. I only have one more witness. It's you.

You can't do that! The courtroom drama that revolutionized television forever. The hell are you doing here? What the hell are you doing here? I work here now. I work here now. So do I. So do I. Well, we'll see about that. Well, we will see. about that. Keep your history in your pants boys. These lawyers play by their own rules. Permission to treat the witness as beautiful. Granted. And they play for keeps. Counselor?

Will you marry me? She can't. She's already married. To her job. Bring it home for the first time. You're a playboy and a social climber. I'm a rebel and an outlaw who plays by his own rules. Of course they're never going to let me in their little club. And experience what no one else has ever had the chance to experience. Let their feet. Justice in Philadelphia. Once again. Amy Poehler. Adam Scott. Rashida Jones. Katherine Hahn.

And Dylan McDermott. I'm a judge now. And you're guilty, Your Honor. Philly Justice. Coming this spring on DVD. Welcome to Philly, bitch.

Wow. Wow. Yes. Wow. Wow. I feel like whoever wrote Perd Happily's intros wrote the text for that trailer. Wait, Morgan, I have an important question for you, and I don't want to get too inside baseball. Is that Steadicam? That is, right? Maybe. Did we hire a Steadicam operator? We never used Steadicam on the show once, probably. We hired a Steadicam operator to shoot that? It looked like Steadicam to me. Yeah, it probably was. Do you remember? I think it was. We built a rig.

We were going to do these walk and talks down the hallways, I think. You know, it really is shorter and less exciting than we really built it up to be. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's... That was just, that was the trailer. That's the trailer. Somewhere there. Yeah. We were shooting like an episode. Yeah. Essentially. Right. Yeah. There's never finished it. And we were shooting an EPK to go around the pilot.

Right. Yeah, there's definitely... My guess would be that we looked at all of the footage and were like, this is a trailer. The way to do this is a trailer, not like long scenes or something. My favorite part of it is when, Adam, when you say... you're a social climber and a playboy. I'm a rebel who plays by his own rules. You're just like speaking the bios of the characters out loud, but in character. And you bring your motorcycle helmet to court. Yeah.

Also, I'm confused as to who is able to object. There's a lot of objecting. Yes. Well, I mean, I feel like it... As Mike said, it was an example of how much fun we were having and how much fun we were allowed to have. So thank you, Mike and Morgan, for making Philly justice a reality. I mean, our absolute pleasure. Thank you, Rashida, for naming the show. Oh, my pleasure.

And Adam, thank you for your work in Afghanistan, it seems like. Yeah. No, thank you. Thanks for creating space for me to go to Afghanistan. With your pistol. With a gun, yeah. And I know, I'm sure Aziz is right out of frame there. So tell Aziz, I'm sorry he wasn't in it. Aziz, everyone says hey. Sorry you weren't in Philly, Justin. Oh, he just walked out. Oh, he's in Rashida's car now. Oh, he's here. Everybody says thank you.

All right. Thank you guys so much for jumping on. It means a lot. And I think this will be a very special episode. Thanks for doing this. So fun. Bye, y'all.

Love you guys. Love all of you. Bye, guys. Love you. Love you. Morgan, let's get Philly Justice back together. Let's get a call sheet, Morgies. All right. Thanks all. And thank you, Mike, for joining and talking about this. It was the best. It was so fun. So fun. Love you. Love you too. Bye all.

That was amazing. We got to see the trailer of Philly Justice, which really was the only thing we ended up making. And we got to talk to the great Mike Schur, who we need to have back to talk more about Parks and Rec because there's just so much to talk to him about. And if you're listening to this podcast and you want to watch it, you can go to Spotify or YouTube and see it there. It's only there on our podcast. You know, also, it might just be fun hearing it described.

And never watch it. But either way, thank you to everybody who joined us. And I think there's one person that's just joining our Zoom right now that we were trying to get. Let's see if we can. There she is. Catherine on. Catherine. Catherine. Catherine, you missed it. Catherine, I'm sorry. We did talk about your character, though. Catherine, I'm zooming in. Zooming in. I love you so much. Zooming in. Okay.

Thank you so much, man. I love my friends. Okay. Better late than never. I'll take her any way I can get her. Okay. Thanks, everybody. See you soon. You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paper Kite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaya McMullen, and Alaya Zanaris.

For Paper Kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

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